Research summary

Prof Antony Galione

Professor Galione was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and received a BA in Natural Sciences (Part 2 Pharmacology) in 1985. Remaining at Cambridge University he obtained his PhD in 1989 having worked on the role of calcium oscillations in cell activation in Michael Berridge's laboratory.

After a short spell at UCL working on mammalian fertilisation with Michael Whitaker, he went to Johns Hopkins University as a Harkness Fellow studying the role of calcium signals in early development. Returning to the UK in 1991, he joined the Department of Pharmacology. He has been successively a Beit Memorial Fellow, Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow and Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow in Basic Biomedical Research.

He was also Hayward Junior Research Fellow at Oriel College and Staines Medical Fellow at Exeter College. He was elected to a Tutorial Fellowship at New College in 1998 in conjunction with a proleptic University appointment. He was appointed to a titular Professor of Pharmacology in 2002, and in 2006 was elected to the Professorship of Pharmacology. Since joining the Department, Professor Galione's principal research interest has been the regulation of intracellular calcium signalling by cyclic ADP-ribose and NAADP, emerging intracellular messengers for calcium mobilisation. This work has led to the identification of new biochemical pathways controlling calcium signals that regulate processes as diverse as fertilisation, secretion, contractility and neuronal excitability using a multidisciplinary approach based on confocal microscopy, video-imaging, electrophysiology, flash photolysis, microsomal calcium flux measurements and molecular and biochemical techniques. A new focus of his work is the study of the physiological roles of the family of the endolysosomal two-pore channels (TPCs) as the intracellular targets for NAADP and their role in calcium signalling.

Three distinct modes of NAADP mediated Ca2+ signallingA. NAADP is a local trigger mechanism for detonating global Ca2+ induced Ca2+ release (CICR) responses from the ER. NAADP acts at TPCs (probable dimers) on acidic Ca2+ stores to evoke a local Ca2+ release. Depending on the juxtaposition to ER Ca2+ release channels, this may trigger a larger, globalized Ca2+ release dependent on endogenous IP3 and cADPR presence for IP3 R or RyR recruitment, repectively.B. Local Ca2+ release by NAADP from acidic stores positioned under the plasma membrane may regulate membrane excitability (excitable cells) or ion fluxes (non‐excitable cells) by modulating Ca2+ activated plasma membrane channels.C. NAADP regulates local cytoplasmic Ca2+ / pH and luminal Ca2+ / pH in endolysosomal compartments that may regulate vesicular fusion of late endosomes/lysosomes important for organelle biogenesis and trafficking.

Professor Galione is an Editor of the Biochemical Journal, a member of the Editorial Board of Zygote, and Calcium Binding Proteins. He received the 2001 Novartis Prize of the British Pharmacological Society for his scientific contributions to Pharmacology and was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2010.

Biography

Professor Galione was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and received a BA in Natural Sciences (Part 2 Pharmacology) in 1985. Remaining at Cambridge University he obtained his PhD in 1989 having worked on the role of calcium oscillations in cell activation in Michael Berridge's laboratory.

After a short spell at UCL working on mammalian fertilisation with Michael Whitaker, he went to Johns Hopkins University as a Harkness Fellow studying the role of calcium signals in early development. Returning to the UK in 1991, he joined the Department of Pharmacology. He has been successively a Beit Memorial Fellow, Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow and Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow in Basic Biomedical Research.

He was also Hayward Junior Research Fellow at Oriel College and Staines Medical Fellow at Exeter College. He was elected to a Tutorial Fellowship at New College in 1998 in conjunction with a proleptic University appointment. He was appointed to a titular Professor of Pharmacology in 2002, and in 2006 was elected to the Professorship of Pharmacology. Since joining the Department, Professor Galione's principal research interest has been the regulation of intracellular calcium signalling by cyclic ADP-ribose and NAADP, emerging intracellular messengers for calcium mobilisation. This work has led to the identification of new biochemical pathways controlling calcium signals that regulate processes as diverse as fertilisation, secretion, contractility and neuronal excitability using a multidisciplinary approach based on confocal microscopy, video-imaging, electrophysiology, flash photolysis, microsomal calcium flux measurements and molecular and biochemical techniques. A new focus of his work is the study of the physiological roles of the family of the endolysosomal two-pore channels (TPCs) as the intracellular targets for NAADP and their role in calcium signalling.